Kfai's Minneculture

Tuberculosis is a highly contagious and infectious disease. As the Trump administration freezes foreign aid, tuberculosis is resurgent worldwide. In Minnesota, the numbers are falling with 21 Minnesota counties reporting a total of 160 new cases of active tuberculosis last year. But those numbers are still chilling when you consider that there was a time when TB was the leading cause of death. Before antibiotics were discovered and offered a cure for TB, the only weapon available to stop its spread was to identify and isolate the sick.Here in Minnesota beginning in the 1930’s we have woman to thank for helping control the disease in the state: Dr. Kathleen Jordan. Dr. Jordan developed an early form of contact tracing, working to detect the illness before it became active.This was at a time when few women sought careers in medicine. But having contracted the disease herself, Dr. Jordan was on a mission. From her base in Granite Falls, she traveled the state to test mostly children since they were often good pr